August 23, 2010

a little less

Climate change - no doubt about it, a fairly sizeable problem. It's pretty easy to feel overwhelmed by the science, the required reduction in emissions, and before you know it, you wonder if there is any chance of solving this gargantuan (yes, I had to spell check it) issue.

At innocent we've been working on our carbon footprint for a number of years - be it introducing our 100% recycled plastic bottle, lightweighting our packaging, or challenging our suppliers to improve their energy, water and waste performance year on year.

We feel pretty positive that we can successfully tackle climate change. Most of the actions we take not only reduce our carbon footprint, but also make commercial sense - if you use less you pay less - not exactly rocket science.

We want people to feel more positive about tackling climate change, but talking about air compressors, reductions in blend waste, and energy capture is not inspiring for everyone. So we decided to start collecting examples of what people do in their day to day lives. Whilst each example might not make that much difference with just one person, when loads of people do it, then we start to get somewhere.

Super Eddie told us how he only turns on the lights in the office when we need them.

Whereas Delia doesn't turn on the lights at all if she knows her way.

Caroline makes sure if she does turn on the lights that they are powered by 100% renewable energy.

So does Ben W (although he was concerned he was having a bad hair day).

Simon is making sure he only buys new clothes when his existing ones are truly worn out (check out his elbow) - thankfully Rach is pretty handy with her darning skills, and she even makes her own clothes.

Steve has ditched the car for coming to work, and now uses a train and bicycle combo.

Kate gave up her car entirely - very impressive.

Philippa does loads of stuff herself, but is really proud of her mum for putting in solar panels.

Jeremy uses a lot less toilet paper... we didn't push him for details though.

And Eva has even gone so far as to change her career to work in sustainability - including studying for her Masters.

We have loads more stories which we will be sharing - we hope that reading these have made you feel a bit more positive about things.

If you want some ideas for stuff you can do - check out http://www.wearewhatwedo.org/. Or if you want to share your actions with us, then please comment on this blog.

We have installed solar panels to heat our water and save on gas bills. Also we always switch off everything at the wall before bed - except the fridge-freezer! However, I still am not wholly convinced that global warming is affected much by what humanity does or doesn't do. The sun's activity and mother nature are cyclical (vines were grown in Yorkshire) and our puny efforts will have little or no effect.

I've been focusing on saving water recently. just had soem aerated taps fitted which are great and I have a nifty one cup kettle for my tea. Going to look at a rain water collection and re-use system next.